We use marked point processes to detect an unknown number of trees from high resolution aerial images. This approach turns to be an energy minimization problem, where the energy contains a prior term which takes into account the geometrical properties of the objects, and a data term to match these objects onto the image. This stochastic process is simulated via a Reversible Jump Markov Chain Monte Carlo procedure, which embeds a Simulated Annealing scheme to extract the best configuration of objects.

We compare in this paper different cooling schedules of the Simulated Annealing algorithm which could provide some good minimization in a short time. We also study some adaptive proposition kernels.

In this research report, we aim at extracting tree crowns from remotely sensed images using marked point processes of discs and ellipses. Our approach is indeed to consider that the data are some realizations of a marked point process. Once a geometrical object is defined, we sample a marked point process defined by a density with a Reversible Jump Markov Chain Monte Carlo dynamics and simulated annealing to get the maximum a posteriori estimator of the tree crown distribution on the image.

In a first part, we propose to review the basis of marked point processes and some of their examples used in forestry statistic inference. Then, we present two new models, with discs and ellipses, and discuss some improvements made in the optimization or in the simulation.

Results are shown on high resolution aerial images of poplars provided by the French Forest Inventory (IFN), and synthetic images simulated with AMAP software (Bionatics, Digiplante project).

In this paper we aim at extracting tree crowns from remotely sensed images. Our approach is to consider that these images are some realizations of a marked point process. The first step is to define the geometrical objects that design the trees, and the density of the process.Then, we use a reversible jump MCMC dynamics and a simulated annealing to get the maximum a posteriori estimator of the tree crowns distribution on the image. Transitions of the Markov chain are managed by some specific proposition kernels.Results are shown on aerial images of poplars given by IFN.